Welcome to the archive of the blog that I ran, starting in 2016.
You are welcome to browse through it, but be warned that there are a lot of busted links and missing photos. I may or may not go back and clean those all up.
I took the blog down because my very old blogging platform went away, and the transition was not as smooth as I had hoped. That came right at the same time that blogging and social media just got to be a lot less fun.
The only reasons I took the lead in the effort to #LockTheClock were:
- Nobody else was doing it
- It was fun
After all my years of work, I realized a couple years ago that neither of those things were still true. The NCSL put up an excellent page to help keep track of the issue. Many legislators became great leaders on the issue, and helped spread the word, so there were others doing it.
And… the overall tenor of the conversation changed from it being a quirky, niche issue to being a substantial public policy issue, so I didn’t need to be out there pushing it for the issue to keep rolling.
In 2015 nobody was talking about DST as a health issue. I published post after post and gathered all the available research and shared it as much as I could, and by 2022 it was primarily talked about as a health issue.
So that part of the job was done. I had succeeded in moving the Overton Window, so that was great.
Also, for reasons that I don’t really want to give any oxygen to here, it just wasn’t fun any more and so… Why do it?
That of course leads to another question: Why come back?
Well, I’m totally burying the lede here, but I’ve been invited to testify to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, in a room that is not at all intimidating.
How did I get this invite?
I’ve been continuing to help legislators a bit behind the scenes, and have developed a reputation for being actually helpful.
Politicians have so many people trying so hard to get those politicians to do what other people want them to do that when someone comes along to help legislators do what those legislators actually want to do, well, it’s a breath of fresh air.
And legislators love the idea of fixing the clocks. Politicians have told me over and over how their dentist or their nephew or some constituent challenged them to fix the clocks.
You are a big fancy legislator, the challenge goes, I’m told, why don’t you get rid of the stupid clock changing?!?!?
The problem is there’s no natural constituency or big money to be made by fixing the clocks—in fact there is more of a profit motive in keeping things the same—so that is a big part of why nothing has happened.
But if a legislator wants to fix this, I am happy to help provide assistance, and have been doing so for years.
That reputation that I had built up quietly resulted in this invitation to Senate Commerce.
Total honor, but just being transparent here… I almost didn’t accept. Why fly on my own dime to D.C. to read a prepared statement for five minutes to a bunch of empty chairs? I thought. Well, a trusted insider told me that this was not that kind of hearing. This was U.S. Senators asking questions and trying to craft thoughtful policy. This is not going to be a big, showy hearing, this is going to be real work.
I’m a big fan of doing the work, and it will be an honor to be of service to my country, especially now when there are so few topics that transcend politics as much as Daylight Saving Time. It has absolutely confounded all efforts to become partisan in any way.
Also, I have an idea to share that may actually be able to fix this thing.
What is that idea?
Sorry, that is going to have to wait until 10 a.m. Thursday, April 10th, 2025. If you are in D.C., feel free to attend the hearing, or check it out on the interwebs.
After the hearing is done, I’ll post at least one more blog with the links, etc.
Thank you, as always, for reading.